Hints to Preachers

Verse 1.—“Help, Lord.” I. The Prayer itself, short, suggestive, seasonable, rightly directed, vehement. II. Occasions for its use. III. Modes of its answer. IV. Reasons for expecting gracious reply.

First two clauses.—Text for funeral of an eminent believer.

Whole verse.—I. The fact bewailed—describe godly and faithful, and show how they fail. II. The feeling excited. Mourning the loss, fears for church, personal need of such companions, appeal to God. III. The forebodings aroused. Failure of the cause, judgments impending, etc. IV. The faith remaining: “Help, Lord.”

Verse 1.—Intimate connection between yielding honour to God and honesty to man, since they decline together.

Verse 2 (first clause).—A discourse upon the prevalence and perniciousness of vain talk.

The whole verse.—Connection between flattery and treachery.

“A double heart.” Right and wrong kinds of hearts, and the disease of duplicity.

Verse 3.—God’s hatred of those twin sins of the lips—Flattery and Pride (which is self flattery). Why he hates them. How he shows his hatred. In whom he hates them most. How to be cleansed from them.

Verse 3, 4.—I. The revolt of the tongue. Its claim of power, self-possession, and liberty. Contrast between this and the believer’s confession, “we are not our own.” II. The method of its rebellion—“flattery, and speaking proud things.” III. The end of its treason—“cut off.”

Verse 5.—The Lord aroused—How! Why! What to do! When!

Last clause.—Peculiar danger of believers from those who despise them and their special safety. Good practical topic.

Verse 6.—The purity, trial, and permanency of the words of the Lord.

Seven crucibles in which believers try the word. A little thought will suggest these.

Verse 7.—Preservation from one’s generation in life and for ever. A very suggestive theme.

Verse 8.—Sin in high places specially infectious. Call to the rich and prominent to remember their responsibility. Thankfulness for honourable rulers. Discrimination to be used in choice of our representatives, or civic magistrates.